Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Not Likely: Trump expects Russia to ‘return Crimea' – White House

US President Donald Trump has been tough on Russia and expects Moscow to
“return” the Crimea peninsula to Ukraine, the White House spokesman
told reporters.

Addressing the resignation of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn
– hounded by the media over his contacts with Russian diplomats prior
to Trump’s inauguration – Spicer pointed out that Russia “seized” Crimea
under the Obama administration and that the Trump-appointed ambassador
to the UN Nikki Haley has “strongly denounced the Russian occupation.”

"President
Trump has made it very clear that he expects the Russian government to
de-escalate violence in the Ukraine and return Crimea," Spicer said at the daily news briefing on Tuesday. “At the same time, he fully expects to – and wants to – get along with Russia."

“Crimea is a part of Ukraine. Our Crimea-related sanctions will
remain in place until Russia returns control of the peninsula to
Ukraine,” Haley said at the UN Security Council meeting on February 2.

Russian
envoy Vitaly Churkin responded by citing the US Constitution and
pointing out that Crimeans overwhelmingly voted to join Russia, after
the US-backed coup in February 2014 overthrew the elected government in
Kiev.

It is in the national and economic interest of the US to
have a good relationship with Russia, Spicer explained, but said that
Haley “speaks for the president” on the matter of Crimea.

Flynn’s
resignation on Monday followed several weeks of media furor over his
telephone conversation with the Russian ambassador to the US in
December, after the outgoing Obama administration expelled 35 Russian
diplomats and seized two properties. Moscow chose not to respond in
kind.

“There is nothing that General Flynn did that was a violation of any sort,” Spicer said, explaining that the adviser was asked to resign because of Trump’s “eroding trust” after Flynn’s accounts of the conversation to administration officials did not square with what was leaked to the media.

Crimea
became part of Russia in 1783, but was reassigned to the Ukrainian
Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954 by the Soviet Union’s ruling
Presidium. Following the 2014 coup, Crimeans overwhelmingly voted to
rejoin Russia in a referendum.

Other regions of Ukraine also
resisted the new government. Kiev was able to brutally suppress dissent
in Odessa and Kharkov, but ran into armed resistance in Donetsk and
Lugansk. Efforts to negotiate a peaceful resolution between Kiev and the
two breakaway regions, known as the Minsk Accords, make no mention of
Crimea.